Mary's Descent

Potential finals contender here. This was a great production with a very witty script and clever concept.

The film had great production value and some great cinematography which was helped but the great location which Loved. The quick cutting really worked well to increase the intensity and really got you engaged in the story quickly. The script and actors were great at making it feel believable and they added a lot to the humor. I would have liked to have seen more of the story and learn't more about was going on to add some more tension but was really good well contained story.

ROCK SOLID PRODUCTION VALUES AND STRONG COMEDIC TIMING BUT A WEAK PAYOFF.

Placeholder review.

So much ominous music! So much mysterious sinister threat!! Pretty obvious how this was going to end once an innocent bystander entered the scene and just wouldn't be hinted away, but still felt like a twist . . . many plot questions left unanswered, but that's okay.

This was so good for most of it. Tight performance, classy cross-cutting that gets straight to the point, tailor-fit music and visually slicker than most 48 films. It just doesn't stick the landing. As a lot of teams have suffered, that Wilhelm Scream doesn't quite work. It's too goofy of a sound to end on for something that builds genuine suspense. The blocking in that final scene also felt a bit off with the two goons standing right behind the guy when he's given a chance to leave. I'm digging into that ending mainly because I was reeeeeeally jiving with this film for most of it.

A rock enthusiast stumbles upon a potentially grave situation. Short & (mostly) to the point this film looked great, taking full advantage of a fantastic location & it's hard to argue that the technical side of things was anything but top-notch. I think the narrative perhaps struggles with making some wrong choices on whose point-of-view things are happening from. Would it have upped the stakes if the story had been from the rock enthusiast's POV instead of Mary's? It might have helped given that we had no idea who Mary was, why she was involved with the two (other) criminals and why whatever they took needed to be buried. Too much felt a little convenient, especially the enthusiast's lack of awareness of the two crooks making all sorts of noise up the hill and then standing right behind him towards the end. And the point about the Wilhelm Scream has been covered in other reviews already.

Great location, camera work , and score The dialogue gets plenty of room to breathe, and the actors get to act. I like how it doesn't go for the full 5 minutes! The scream at the end is a bit jarring, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the film somehow. Maybe a bit too loud, or the guy doesn't seem like a Wilhelm screamer? I like the differing pace of the two intermingling stories.